Maria's birth to Lauren/beating the system!

Hi Patricia

Just to let you know Lauren was born on 5th November.

We had a bit of a stressful week but in the end she came through!

I went into hospital on the 2nd to be induced after fending off medical intervention for a week. I was given a pessary on the 3rd which did nothing. Thursday evening I went over to the labour ward for my waters to be broken but my cervix had become unfavourable.

I was told that I needed to consider a c section or to try again tomorrow. I was also put on nil by mouth.

Decided to go for c section rather than to be pumped with drugs that I anticipated wouldn't work. I felt that with an elective section I had some control as opposed to 12 hours of induction that may may fail and result in an emergency section.

On Friday, the c section list was busy and it wasn't sure if I would get a slot, though I was still nil by mouth. At 2pm I started to feel sick and I was moved to the labour ward at 3pm. I went from 0 to 10cm by 5.30pm. Lauren was posterior and face upwards but decided not to turn. I pushed until 7pm but was then taken to theatre as there was some fetal dipping.

The plan was for ventouse and possible c section if that didn't work. My contractions were so fast that I am convinced we didn't need assistance however one ventouse pull and she was out.

She was born at 7.20pm at 6lbs 6 oz.

The whole thing was so fast I wasn't very active as the space between then was short, but I used breathing and gas and air from around 4.30pm.

While the birth was not as natural as I had hoped,I felt I managed to beat the system as I went into labour naturally despite all the attempts to put me into labour! One midwife congratulated me on beating the system!

Lauren is very relaxed and enjoying life!

Maria

Louise's positive planned Caesarean birth to Alex

Hi Patricia, I have a son! He was born 7lb 3 and we've called him Alexander, more commonly known as Alex, or a whole host of baby nicknames at the moment. He's a very happy, responsive little thing, and an excellent feeder. Amazing to see that instinct in action. The c-section was ok, a bit tricky in places. We were called in for 8am, but they had loads of emergencies so we weren't seen nntil 3pm, and in the meantime i wasn't able to eat or drink. I think that contributed to me feeling absolutely dreadful afterwards, and i also think they overdid the diamorphine. I couldn;t speak in sentences, and my head and eyes were rolling. After making such a fuss with the birth plan, I was actually too nervous to hold him or try to feed for a while, although my husband held him very close to me. But then a very good, bossy midwife came along and latched him on regardless, and away he went! The surgeons were quite good at accommodating my request about the placenta. We agreed that they would leave it as long as they could, and they said the cord had started to collapse by the time they cut and clamped. It was only a matter of minutes, but i was glad they agreed to it. Overall, I felt they were prepared to be flexible and it did make me feel more in control of the experience, which was what I wanted. My recovery is going well now, although the immediate aftermath was pretty tricky. I was very sick and yellow skinned at times, and quite severely dehydrated. I managed to get home after two nights, though, on Christmas Day. I felt like death, but it was worth it to get out of hospital. Now I'm feeling almost right as rain again. Thanks again for all your help and tips. I think, under the circumstances, I did everything i could to reclaim the experience. Despite the tricky first moments after his birth, I feel a really strong bond with Alex, and i do think the positivity of your classes helped. I was always pretty nervous about parenthood, but it's all coming really naturally. All the best, and happy new year! Louise. xx